Dave Smith Instruments ends development of its Tempest drum machine

“We’ve reached what we consider the limits of the instrument's available memory and processing ability”

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Released in 2011, Dave Smith and Roger Linn’s Tempest is one of the most ambitious and feature-packed drum machines on the market, but it’s just been announced that it’s reached the end of its development cycle.

Writing on the DSI forum, Dave Smith said: “When the Tempest was first conceived, we never imagined the many ways you would ultimately put it to use. As such, over time, we've done our best to add as many features as we deemed implementable within the Tempest's technical framework. We've listened to your requests and have enhanced its operation, editing, and performance capabilities. While there are still some minor bugs remaining, we’ve addressed the bugs affecting the Tempest’s essential operation and feel that it is stable, reliable, has abundant functionality, and is very fun to play.

“Though some of you continue to request new features and offer useful suggestions for improvement, we’ve reached what we consider the limits of the instrument's available memory and processing ability. For these reasons, we consider this release (OS 1.4.5.1) to be our final Tempest OS release.”

Tempest co-creator Roger Linn went on to say: “Though I may have chosen differently, I understand Dave’s decision to finish Tempest development with this update. He’s devoted far more effort and resources to Tempest than any of his other products, and I feel that even with some remaining minor bugs, Tempest is incredibly deep and remarkably functional, and in my opinion has no competition for what it does.”

Tempest certainly holds a unique place in the hardware drum machines market, but it feels like this announcement marks the beginning of the end of its lifespan. It is still available to buy, however.